The Markets at Town Center, the shopping center between the St. Johns Town Center and Costco Wholesale Corp., is for sale, and the deal is expected to fetch a “premiere price” from an institutional investor.

“It’s certainly the premiere asset on the market, retail-wise, in the city of Jacksonville,” said Karl Johnston, senior director of the capital markets group for Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc. “Institutions feel fairly comfortable with the immediate area around the St. Johns Town Center and envision it as a safe deployment of capital.”

The value of the property — 350,000 square feet on 52.5 acres — was pegged at $130 million by Real Estate Alert, a commercial real estate newsletter, though Johnston said that number is “probably a little aggressive.”

Pinehill Investment Co. of Atlanta developed the Markets, which opened in 2009. Ben Carter Enterprises of Atlanta, which developed the first phase of the town center, is the leasing agent.

Large assets like the Markets aren't typically listed with a price; instead, the owner seeks offers. Pinehill hasn't set a deadline for offers, said Steven Cadranel, a partner in the firm. He said if an "appropriate" offer is made, the transaction would likely close by the end of the third quarter.

He declined to comment on the firm's internal valuation of the property, saying only that they had "high expectations."

"It’s a good time now, because we have brought our leasing and quality of the center up to a level where it’s a very attractive asset in the market," Cadranel said, "and it’s a good time for us with respect to the loan that we have on the property."

Nordstrom Rack (NYSE: JWN) is under construction in the Markets. Once it's complete, Cadranel said, the Markets will be completely built out.

The Markets is a mix of bars and restaurants, including Suite, Whiskey River and BlackFinn American Grille; and retailers Ulta Beauty, Recreational Equipment Inc., West Marine and Motherhood Maternity, among others.

The property has been on the market for two to three weeks, and is already garnering a great deal of interest from investors, said Brad Peterson, senior managing director with the Orlando office of HFF LP.

“Jacksonville, on the retail side — you don’t have the full force of institutional investors,” Peterson said. “All institutional investors want to be in South Florida, and to a lesser degree, Tampa and Orlando, and to a little bit of a lesser degree, be in Jacksonville.”

But this transaction will attract those investors who may otherwise shun Jacksonville, and ultimately be a boon for commercial real estate.

“There’s not a lot of comparable projects,” Peterson said. “This will serve as a good aggressive comp, which will buoy other prices on retail real estate. This will be a bellwether, a big trade for Jacksonville.”

Investors searching for higher returns than those offered in top-tier cities like Miami or San Francisco are likely to be drawn to the Markets deal, said Tarik Bateh, a vice president in the capital markets group in Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s (NYSE: JLL) Jacksonville office.

In a top-tier market, where prices are highest and risk is lowest, capitalization rates are lower. Cap rates are the rate of return an investor will earn from a property, based on how much was paid for the property. The more a property costs, the lower its cap rate will be.

“The willingness of institutional owners to take on the additional risk found in these smaller markets has been predicated in large part by the quality of the location and the property,” Bateh said. “And as one would expect, we’ve also seen more and more debt sources looking to lend on very attractive terms on core assets in Jacksonville and other secondary and tertiary markets, particularly where institutional sponsorship is available.”